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Facebook might still be tracking you, even if you delete your account

Mark Zuckerberg’s company stores a vast amount of data
Mark Zuckerberg’s company stores a vast amount of data

The shocking revelations about Cambridge Analytica’s alleged use of 50 million leaked Facebook profiles has highlighted the dark uses of data users share with the company.

Searches for ‘How to Delete Facebook’ have spiked on Google as the scandal unfolded – centred on how data from a Facebook quiz may have been misused.

But does deleting Facebook stop the company tracking you? Not exactly.

In 2016, Facebook announced that it would track non-users as well as users via its online ad network – using cookies, ‘Like’ buttons and other plug-ins on third-party sites.

If you’re still using Facebook, you can switch off some of this functionality.

You can switch the functionality off here
You can switch the functionality off here

The option (which you can find by going to the lock icon in Facebook on your PC, then to Settings, then to Ads) says, ‘Your Facebook ad preferences can be used to show you ads on apps and websites off of the Facebook Companies.’

Switching it off will mean that you don’t see ads ‘personalised’ to you on other sites.

The company said its goal is to serve relevant adverts to people who don’t use Facebook – using the data it has on its 1.7 billion users to make inferences about non-users.

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This approach is known as ‘lookalike’ targeting, according to The Verge.

‘Deactivating’ an account (found under Settings), lets you deactivate your account temporarily – but you can reactivate it simply by logging in.

It means your hide your profile and photos will no longer appear in Search, and your name will be ‘greyed out’.

The account can be reactivated, and some interactions (such as comments on other people’s pages) may still be visible.

To do it, click account settings at the top right of any Facebook page (in the desktop version, select Settings, then General,Manage your account.

Scroll down to click Deactivate your account.

If that’s not enough, you can delete it altogether – although you won’t be able to get your data back again.

From Facebook’s menus, it appears as if deactivating an account is the closest Facebook will let you get to deletion – but it’s actually possible to delete your account entirely.

First, save your information, by going to Settings, then the menu option, Download a copy of your Facebook data (below your General Account Settings), then Start My Archive.

An official Facebook page with instructions on how to permanently delete your accountis available here .

Once done, you have 14 days in which you can log back in and cancel the request, but after that point, there is no way to restore the data, and (crucially) people will not be able to search for or see your profile or any content you have shared on Facebook.